The Left Hand of Darkness

A historical Gethen legend tells of two brothers from a Gethen land called the Hearth of Shath who were in kemmering with one another. The taboo against incest is not severe on Gethen but does restrict lifelong partnership among siblings. After one brother gives birth to the other’s child, the lord of the realm forcibly separates them. The birthing brother dies by suicide. The other brother, Getheren, is blamed for his brother’s death and exiled.

Getheren walks through the snow to the edge of his kingdom until nearly dead from exposure. Upon reaching a strange white tower, Getheren finds his brother. His brother tells him that he is in “the place inside the blizzard” (24), meaning the afterlife of those who die by suicide. Getheren refuses to stay with his brother there, and returns to his kingdom, taking an assumed name.

For years, the Hearth of Shath faced economic problems. When Getheren resumed his name in his old age, he quickly fell ill and died. Shath returned to prosperity soon after.

Genly anxiously prepares for his meeting with Argaven XV and considers his role on Gethen. As a representative of the Ekumen, he understands that he could be put into grave danger, yet arriving as a sole representative on a new planet has proven to be the most effective way to earn trust. He prepares for the rigorous protocols and dress of the Karhide court, without Estraven to guide him.

Approaching the court, Genly considers Gethenian history. The planet is modern by Terran standards but came to technological development very slowly. Gethenians are physiologically and psychologically attuned to their cold climate, a fact reflected in their architecture and infrastructure. As Genly waits, he hears news that Estraven has been declared an official traitor of Karhide. Genly’s first impulse is to panic, but before he can act, he is ushered into his audience with the king.

The king is petulant and unhappy with Estraven. The king attempts characterize the former prime minister as a person scheming against Genly behind his back. To Genly’s relief, however, the mentally disordered king feels no threat at all from the Ekumen; his ire is wholly fixated on Estraven. Argaven is baffled by the idea of more than 80 habitable worlds and thousands of different nations, or that these nations should pose a threat to them. The distances between worlds require ambassadors to enter a deep freeze to allow them to travel so far without growing old and dying during travel. This means that the Ekumen have infinite patience regarding diplomatic negotiations; the same ambassadors can leave and return several Gethenian generations later. Nevertheless, highly sophisticated “ansible” communication allows the Ekumen to speak across light years instantaneously. Most alien to the king is the notion that Genly’s people are born with two sexes. He calls them “perverts” (38).

Genly leaves in peace. He wonders how Estraven is faring, and decides to try his diplomatic mission with Orgoreyn, the neighboring nation-state.

Another Gethenian legend tells of a Lord Ashe Berosty ren ir Ipe, who wanted Foretellers to predict on which day he would die. The fortune tellers tell Berosty that he will die on the 19th day of any given month, and nothing more. Berosty leaves in a state of acute paranoia. He lives like a prisoner, awaiting death.

Months later, Berosty’s mate Herbor of Geganner returns to the Foretellers, asking for more precise information. Herbor asks, “how long will Ashe Berosty ren ir Ipe live?” (45). Herbor is warned of the price all seekers of knowledge must pay, and then receives another obscure answer: Berosty will live “longer than Herbor of Geganner” (45). Upon hearing this news, Berosty goes mad and kills Herbor with a large stone. The local authorities keep Barosty prisoner for a month, after which Berosty dies by suicide by hanging on the 19th day.

Genly arranges for passage out of Karhide, which involves traveling over mountains in a large trade caravan in the Spring. Genly is rich by Gethenian standards, having manufactured minerals precious to the Gethenians before landing. He pays for his passage easily.

Passage to Orgoreyn is slow, as according to Gethenian custom. Though the Gethenians do not have a word for war, Genly muses that the Orgoreyn people have the greatest capacity to be mobilized to warlike ends. The caravan travels through the mountains separating the two countries, where snow falls deep and comforts are few. The caravan stops in a city called Rer, the former Karhidish seat of power. The buildings there are large and ancient.

From there, Genly sets out on foot to visit Otherhord, the monastery of a soothsaying religion called Handdara. Its practitioners are called Foretellers. Otherhord is spread out within a forest and easy to miss. Genly is soon led to Faxe, and is impressed by the intensity and serenity of the Foreteller’s meditation trance.

Genly stays at Otherhord, doing chores and observing the daily rituals of the Foretellers and learning the ways of their studied “ignorance,” from which the Foretellers gain their gift of cryptic fortune telling, which is different from Mindspeech, the esoteric Ekumen practice of mind reading. After considering the question for several days, Genly asks Faxe whether he will fulfill his mission within five years. The answer, a simple yes, involves a complicated ritual that lasts through the afternoon into the evening. Genly observes that the ritual involves the participation of people chemically induced into one sex, whom ordinary Gethenians think of as “perverts” (64).

Later, Faxe refuses to learn the practice of Genly’s Mindspeech, after acknowledging that it must, by its nature, break down the barriers that are important for kings and businesspeople to remain in power. Indeed, says Genly, the Ekumen have no further use for kings. Faze says that he prefers to practice ignorance. By doing so he exhibits “the perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question” (70).